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FACTBOX-Ups and downs in U.S.-Iranian relations
19 Jul 2008 13:53:30 GMT
 Source: Reuters
July 19 (Reuters) - Iranian officials met envoys from world powers, including the United States, on Saturday in Geneva to discuss the dispute over its nuclear programme.

The United States is sending an envoy to the talks for the first time, seeking to underline to the Islamic Republic and others Washington's stated position that it wants a diplomatic solution to the impasse.

Here are some details of 55 years of turbulent relations between Iran and the United States.

1953 - A COUP

-- In August 1953, the CIA helped orchestrate the overthrow of Iran's popular prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, restoring the Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, to power.

-- Washington acted after Britain, opposed to Mossadegh's policy of nationalising the British-controlled oil industry, convinced U.S. officials the prime minister was turning to communism. As Britain's power faded, the United States became the symbol of what many Iranians saw as Western imperialism.

1972 - A VISIT

-- A 1972 visit by U.S. President Richard Nixon cemented a close strategic relationship between Iran and the United States. Iran spent millions of petro-dollars buying some of the most advanced U.S. military equipment. But opposition to the Shah, led by exiled cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, mounted.

1979 - A REVOLUTION

-- After months of increasingly bloody clashes between protesters and troops, the Shah fled into exile in January 1979. The next month, Khomeini returned to Iran in triumph to seal victory for a revolution whose mantra was "Death to America".

-- In November 1979, Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 90 hostages; 52 were held captive for 444 days, prompting Washington to break relations in 1980.

1986 - AN ARMS DEAL

-- U.S. President Ronald Reagan admitted to secret arms deals with Iran that broke a U.S. embargo. The trade was aimed at winning the release of Americans held by pro-Iranian Shi'ite militants in Lebanon. Money from the sales was secretly passed to U.S.-backed Contra guerrillas in Nicaragua. At the time, Iran was embroiled in its 1980-88 war with former President Saddam Hussein's Iraq, in which the United States gave increasing support to Baghdad.

1997 - A MODERATE

-- Iranian voters swept reform-minded President Mohammad Khatami to power. He promoted a "dialogue among civilisations". During his term, Iranians staged an impromptu vigil in Tehran when hijacked planes struck U.S. targets on Sept. 11, 2001.

-- After those al Qaeda attacks, Iran offered support in a U.S.-led war to topple Afghanistan's Taliban leaders shielding al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. Iran helped ensure the success of a multilateral postwar conference on Afghanistan's future. In January 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush branded Iran part of an "axis of evil" and accused it of seeking nuclear weapons.

2003 - AN INVASION

-- The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq removed Saddam, a Sunni Arab leader who had been a deadly enemy of Iran, and brought to power Iraqi Shi'ite factions with close links to Tehran.

-- As Iraq descended into insurgency and sectarian conflict, the United States accused Tehran of arming, funding and training Shi'ite militias that have attacked U.S. forces in Iraq. Iran denies this, blaming the U.S. troop presence for the violence.

-- In May 2008, Baghdad urged Tehran and Washington to halt mutual accusations and hold a fourth round of talks on stabilising Iraq. Tehran rejected this, accusing U.S. forces of a "massacre" of the Iraqi people, an apparent reference to an offensive against militants loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

2008 - A NUCLEAR ROW

-- The United States led efforts to toughen U.N. sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme and in March the Security Council adopted a third sanctions resolution.

-- In late May, Tehran reiterated it would not give up its right to enrich uranium, days before major powers were to offer new incentives to try to coax Tehran into halting the work.

-- Iran says its nuclear programme is lawful and is designed only to generate electricity, not make bombs, but it has failed to convince the West that its plans are exclusively peaceful.

-- U.S.-Iran tensions have worsened since the 2005 election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has berated the West, queried the Holocaust and called for Israel to be wiped off the map. In a surprise development, a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate in late 2007 said Iran had put nuclear military plans on hold in 2003.

-- In July 2008 it was reported that the United States would announce in the next month that it planned to establish a diplomatic presence in Tehran for the first time in 30 years. Washington said last week it was sending senior diplomat William Burns to join nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva.


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